Improvement in metallic signs



- SAMSUEL c. COLLIS. Improvement in MetaHiq-Signs.

No. 114,927. Pm ttttt ,m, 1s11.

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SAMUEL CHARLES OOLLIS, or PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

Letters Patent bio-114,927, dated May 16, 187i.

IMPROVEMENT lN METALLIC SIGNS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part oi the some.

I, SAMUEL CHARLES 00mm, of Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have in vented an Improved Metal Sign, of which the following is e. specification.

.Nature and Object of the I rwent'ion.

Description of the Accompanying Drawing. Figure 1 illustratesthc mode of manufacturing my improved metal sign, and

. Figure 2 shows the sign completed.

General Description.

Metal signs having recessed letters filled with colored composition have heretofore been made by first marking out the letters upon the plate and then cutting the latter by means of chisels and gravel-s until recessed letters of a depth suflicient to hold a bodyof colored composition have been formed.

This is a very slow and laborious process, so much so, in tact, that such signs have commonly been made oi'zinc or other soft metal, to reduce the labor of cutting.

These soft-metal signs bare to be subjected to fre-, quent rubbing to prevent tarnishing, which has a tendency to wear away the surface, and to consequently obliterate portions of the letters, the latter, owing to the method in which th y are out, being necessarily of unequal depth. I have overcome the above objections and have produced a cheap and durable sign, by making the same, as I will now proceed to describe, 'of a perforated and a non-perforated metal plate, permanently united together, and having the recesses filled with colored composition.

This will be readily understood by referring to the drawing, wherei A and B represent two metal plates, the former being perfectly plain, and the latter having the desired letters or characters out entirely through it.

These letters may be quickly and accurately punched out by dies, such as are used in making stencil-plates, after which the two plates are soldered, brazed, or otherwise secured together so as to make a perfect and permanent junction throughout, the whole becoming, in fact, the equivalent of one solid metal plate, the recessed letters and figures in which are filled with colored composition.

The letters and characters in my improved sign are of a uniform depth, and are not liable, therefore, to

be partially obliterated by the wearing away of the surface of the sign, and the latter canbe made of any suitable hard metal, which is not so liable to become tarnished as zinc, and which will not require such fre quent rubbing.

Cheap signs can also be produced in accordance with my invention by making the front plate'of brass or copper and the backing-plate of any cheap metal or alloy, the plate thus produced having all the appearance of and being quite as substantial as a more costly plate made entirely of copper or brass.

If desired, the. edges of the letters in the front plate may he so beveled that, when it is secured to the backing-plate, the recesses will be under-cut, thereby tending to retain the colored composition packed in the recesses.

My improved sign, being, in efiect, when completed, one solid metal plate, can be bent to any desired shape, to be fitted to a store-front or doorway as. readily as any ordinary metallic sign.

Claim.

A sign, consisting of a perforated metal plate-permcnently united throughout to a non-perforatedmetal backing-plate, and having the recesses thus formed packed with composition.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

S. O. OOLLIS. Witnesses:

WM. A. STEEL. F. B. RICHARDS. 

